Saturday, 31 August 2013

We will stop Bashar al-Assad from gassing innocent children ... just as soon as Congress gets back from vacation. No, not after the long weekend everyone here is taking, after the longer break our Congress gets. Whether you support or oppose a strike on Syria, this makes America look bad. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Harry Reid recall the Senate early and let John Boehner explain—between rounds of golf?—why nerve gas is good for kids.

A journalist’s partner who was detained carrying thousands of British intelligence documents through Heathrow airport was also holding the password to an encrypted file written on a piece of paper, the government has disclosed.

[...]

The government’s statement claims possession of the documents by Mr Miranda, Mr Greenwald and the Guardian posed a threat to national security, particularly because Mr Miranda was carrying a password alongside a range of electronic devices on which classified documents were stored.

Keeping passwords separate from the computer files or accounts to which they relate is a basic security step.

The 178-page budget summary for the National Intelligence Program details the successes, failures and objectives of the 16 spy agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, which has 107,035 employees.

The summary describes cutting-edge technologies, agent recruiting and ongoing operations. The Post is withholding some information after consultation with U.S. officials who expressed concerns about the risk to intelligence sources and methods. Sensitive details are so pervasive in the documents that The Post is publishing only summary tables and charts online.

Britain’s PM failed to count noses before calling for a vote on a Syrian attack and came up short. If John Boehner had any guts, he’d have already recalled the House to debate a resolution this weekend. This isn’t about dead Syrian children, it’s about our Constitution. (Via Drudge.)